by Dave Carter

Hi everyone! New guy, Dave Carter, here with the first DC sales charts of 2014. I have an introductory write-up down at the end of this column, but since you’re all really here for the sales numbers, commentary and snark, let’s get to it:

On the surface DC seemingly does well to start off the year, with their two premier Batman-starring titles in the #1 & #2 slots, and five of the top ten. But once you start looking a little deeper there is much to cause concern…

Three of DC’s top selling titles, Forever Evil, Superman Unchained, and Sandman Overture, did not ship this month, contributing to the overall sales decline.

It’s not complete doom and gloom; average sales are still up over 5 and 10 years ago. But things have been going slowly downhill since the New 52 introduction and DC haven’t yet found a way to stabilize things over the long term.

Please consider the fine print at the end of the column (it has changed a bit in a few places…) Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com‘s estimates can be found here.

Hey, those numbers look slightly different from what M-OF was giving us…!

Yes, it’s true. While I’m still using the ICv2 figures as a base, in addition I’ll be pulling info from other sources where available (e.g. to get re-order figures that fall below the top 300). Also, I’m calculating percentages based on total sales, not first month sales, as I feel that gives a better indication of the direction in which a title is going.

I’ve also introduced a new statistic: Percentage Change Since Issue #1 tracks how far sales have dropped or risen since the title was given a restart.

With over 117,000 in sales (combining regular and combo-pack editions) Batman places in the #1 position in January. However, these are the lowest numbers since the New 52 relaunch and sales continue to drift down during the “Zero Year” storyline. To speculate, readers may be starting to tire of the drawn-out flashback story and want to see more present-day Batman adventures from Snyder & Capullo.

Special anniversary issue (the original Detective Comics #27 was the 1st appearance of Batman 75 years ago), and at $7.99 per issue those are fabulous numbers. One of the stories contained within kicks off the “Gothtopia” crossover, and there may be enough people sampling the first installment to lead to an increase on the ancillary titles. But if past trends hold next month will see a decline right back to previous sales levels; we’ll just have to wait and see…

Those are worrying drops for direct tie-ins to DC’s current “Forever Evil” event. Are readers tiring of the story (that really started back in July with the “Trinity War” crossover)? Say what you will about Marvel going twice-monthly with their latest event series, but at least they were able to move through them more quickly.

A worrying drop for what is essentially a third issue; but let’s face it, this title has been way overachieving since its New 52 relaunch. I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming based on either the character’s previous (2000-2003) series or the sales of her previous New 52 haunt (Suicide Squad), even with boosts from incentive covers and whatnot. It looks like sales may eventually settle down in the 50K range, which would be very good however you look at it.

A tiny drop from the previous month, which is encouraging. This title has pretty much been in perpetual crossover mode since it launched, as it will be until its final issue (#14), after which it will be relaunched as the Canada-based Justice League United with Jeff Lemire at the helm. Maybe then it will get a chance to stabilize on its own merits…

(After this point in the chart, all further titles are being outsold by Image’s The Walking Dead…)

Those drops are not encouraging, especially for a comic teaming up DC’s two biggest characters. At this point the decreases should be decelerating, not accelerating. The title is heading into a crossover with the much-lower-selling Worlds’ Finest, which may be a temporary boost for WF but if history is any guide will be a further drag on B/S’s sales.

(After this point in the chart, all further titles are being outsold by Image’s Saga…)

Still losing 5% per month; if this doesn’t slow down soon there are going to be problems up ahead. As this book slides back down to the mid-list, one has to question if the Green Lantern franchise can really support its current size of five titles without Geoff Johns at the helm of the main GL book.

The declines are slowing, but it looks like this will probably land at around 40K in a few months. A solid book starring two of DC’s biggest characters probably should be doing better than that. On the other hand, that would be better than the main Superman and Wonder Woman books are doing separately at the moment.

(After this point in the chart, all further titles are outsold by the first issue of Dark Horse’s Serenity: Leaves on the wind…)

Sales are now below where the pre-New 52 version of this title ended (52,704). It’s not in any danger of being cancelled any time soon, but how long will it be allowed to continue as essentially a Brave and the Bold Batman team-up title?

DC might have been hoping for better sales from a Justice League title, though so far sales are way far ahead of where their previous 31st Century-based comic (LoSH) ended. (They may also be wondering if it would have sold better with original artist Kevin Maguire on art duties…)

January was a five Wednesday month, so even though DC used the first Wednesday to ship their week 4 books from December (due to the Holidays falling on Wednesdays) they also shipped a slate of annuals in the final week of January as well.

We’ve now reached the mid-list portion of DC’s sales: Those books that mostly feature their long time characters that tend to sell in the 30-40K range (barring any events, crossovers, reboots, creative team changes, etc.) In a healthier market, DC’s mid-list would be selling 10-20K better. OTOH, ten years ago their mid-list was hitting 25-35K, so things aren’t as bad as they’ve been in the past.

One of several Batman Family titles being cancelled in a couple of months to make room for the new Batman Eternal weekly series.

The ten year comparison is from the issue when the previous iteration of this series was at it nadir sales-wise. Through out its existence Nightwing has always been a solid mid-list title. Though its sales are currently a few thousand below those of Batman and…, perhaps Nightwing should have been spared above those of a title that is currently a bit rudderless?

A tie-in with “Gothtopia” sees an increase of around 2500 copies, or approx. one extra copy per store served by Diamond in North America. Not exactly the surge one hopes for in a Bat-crossover, but maybe next month will see some reorder activity?

Not exactly a warm welcome for the new creative team, but retailers aren’t running away in droves yet either. If the numbers settle down soon it will still be at a level that is historically good for an Aquaman comic.

A spin-off series has been announced to start in April though, which given these numbers may not be the best idea…

Launching three new Superman titles to coincide with last summer’s Man of Steel movie may have seemed like a worthwhile bet, but it didn’t exactly pay off, as the new titles simply eroded interest in Superman and Action.

DC recently announced that the all-star creative team of Geoff Johns, John Romita, Jr. & Klaus Jansen will be taking over the main Superman title sometime in 2014, which will surely give a huge bump in sales. It will likely be the first time in the New 52 era that a creative team change re-energizes a title.

Now in a crossover-within-a-crossover, and it would appear that many readers have decided to give up the book rather than follow the story into other titles that they have no interest in reading. One would assume that this is not the reaction that DC had been hoping for. But the numbers are still above pre-crossover levels.

Those are oddly consistent percentage drops over the last three months! 32K is a decent figure historically for a Wonder Woman book. Azzarello and company are off doing their own thing in the corner of the DCU, but if sales start to slide below 30K someone might decide to make a change…

(After this point in the chart, all further titles are outsold by Dark Horse’s main Star Wars book…)

Continues to slide down the chart. Remember, this is the second-best selling book in the Green Lantern franchise; why is the franchise trying to support five different titles?

Oh wait, they’re adding a sixth title to the GL family in April?!

This ends the DCU mid-list. The DCU titles beyond this point should be considered to be ‘in trouble.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean that cancellation is on the immediate horizon, but *something* is going to have to change, whether it be a change in creative teams or a crossover or a gimmick, to keep them away from the cancellation bear…

The relaunch adds a little less than 3000 more copies. If Year Two follows standard sales patterns there may not be a year three. This is a digital-first title though, so the economics are somewhat different, and largely opaque to us.

Creatively this is one of the strongest comics in the DCU stable right now, but that is just not translating into sales (though it’s still a shade less than 4K units over the previous creative iteration). 2.86 million people watched the most recent (as of this writing) new episode of the CW television show Arrow.

DC stopped the previous creative team’s plan for the first lesbian wedding in a mainstream super-hero comic, which would have run the risk of attracting massive outside media interest and a potentially huge sales spike. Someone at DC must have thought that continuing fading sales was a much better approach to take.

The “Gothtopia” crossover adds a bit fewer than 2K copies. Which beats a decrease but they had to be hoping for more. The December issue sold the fewest copies of any issue of a Birds of Prey series ever. If this title is to survive it will need some major retooling…

Still dropping fairly rapidly for this point. Retailers likely overestimated the demand for the first issue of an out-of-continuity mini-series tying in with a toy line from the 1980s, and we’re just seeing market corrections.

Part of the Forever Evil crossover-within-a-crossover, but that only seems to be accelerating the decline. I’ll be surprised if this lasts past issue #12 before DC decides to put Pandora back in her box.

So in between issues #25 & 26 of Superboy, the main character was killed off in an issue of Superman, and then a new version of Superboy (from the future) was introduced in an issue of Teen Titans. This new evil Superboy became the star of the book with #26. Given this sort of contempt for readers, this book deserves its low sales.

Bringing Hex into the present day and having him meet Batman, John Constantine, Swamp Thing and Superman probably seemed like a good way to boost sales. But it hasn’t turned out that way. Set to return to the old west (and its former longer page count) in April.

When the previous Jonah Hex series reached these sales numbers (Jonah Hex #30), the title lasted another forty issues before being rebooted into the New 52. So somebody with clout at the company really likes Jonah Hex.

It would appear that retailers ordered Alien #1 as though it were simply issue #20 of the previous series, but then ordered issue #2 of Alien as though it were the second issue of a mini-series. So the worst of both worlds then.

As a long-time fan of Superman, these done-in-one, continuity-light tales of the Man of Steel are exactly what I’m looking for in a monthly Superman comic. If only there were more people who felt the same way.

My personal favorite current Batman comic, though apparently not enough people agree. Ends (I think) with #12, as the digital-first series that feeds this has already ended. If everyone on Tumblr who says that they want Damian as Robin, Stephanie as Batgirl, and Barbara as Oracle actually bought this series that features all of those things it would doubtlessly still be going.

The previous three issues were returnable, but this one wasn’t. Starting to distinguish itself sales-wise from Coffin Hill, but not in a good way. Taking a break in April but back for a new story arc in May…

Returnable. This is a ‘digital-second’ book, produced in the same style as DC’s digital-first books but released first in print before going online in installments.

Do you know what kids like? Batman. Do you know what kids also like? Scooby-Doo. So the fact that a comic geared towards kids that teams up Batman and Scooby-Doo isn’t moving at least 20K copies means that there is something fundamentally wrong with the direct sales comics market. Partly this is DC’s fault: if Batman is co-starring in your team-up book, YOU PUT BATMAN’S NAME IN THE TITLE OF THE FLIPPIN’ BOOK! That’s just comic marketing 101. Calling this Batman & Scooby-Doo Team-Up would be worth at least an additional 5K in sales, I should think.

This reads more like an Image book than a Vertigo book, and one has to wonder if Image would have been a better fit as a publisher. It certainly isn’t going to last much longer at DC with these numbers.

The lowest-selling New 52 debut book will finally be put out of its misery with issue #30. You may be wondering why it was allowed to go on for so long? I have a theory:

You may recall that at the end of the Flashpoint event the DCU, Wildstorm, and Vertigo universes were merged together and the New 52 was born. This was touted as a feature of the new DCU. Besides Stormwatch, there were New 52 books for Grifter and Voodoo (and later Team 7), and characters and concepts from the old Wildstorm universe were inserted into other books like Superman and Superboy. But it turns out that this was less of a merging and more of a grafting, and like a host body rejecting an incompatible skin graft, the host DCU rejected the Wildstorm implants. The ending of Stormwatch, the last remaining of the New 52 titles that was based on a former Wildstorm property, would signal the failure of the attempted integration, and thus DC editorial gave this title much more slack before finally having to admit defeat.

Ending with issue #12 in May. These sales say something about how hard it can be for even talented writers with a large social media presence (Ms. Simone has over 46K Twitter followers) to launch a super-hero book that isn’t a reboot or retread of an already existing property.

The existence of an all-ages Batman title is contingent on the existence of a Batman animated cartoon aimed at kids. Said cartoon’s existence is contingent not as much on ratings as you might expect, but on toy sales. So if you like this current iteration of the all-ages Batman, your best bet to see it continue is not to buy more copies of the comic, but go out and buy some bits of plastic. This sadly is the world in which we live.

Returnable. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? quite often doesn’t chart in the Diamond Top 300 numbers as provided to us by ICv2, so I’ve had to use my mystic powers of dark comics statistical arts to divine many of the numbers above. In short, take these numbers with an even larger grain of salt than you do any of the other figures in this column.

Mercifully the final issue. As with Scooby-Doo above, some figures had to be divined from other sources.

In the years ahead, The Green Team will be used as an example of how not to publish a super-hero comic book: Art Baltazar and Franco, best known for their humorous, all-ages books like Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures, were recruited to write a New 52 reboot of a Joe Simon concept that appeared in an issue of First Issue Special back in the 1970s. It was an odd choice to be sure, but to oddball comic geeks like myself it seemed ripe for fun, wacky comics with maybe a bit of social commentary. What we got was anything but that—they played it straight. I’m all for creators stretching their boundaries and trying something new, but this was not a good property for Art & Franco to try to do that. Fans of theirs expecting something in the vein of their other work would be quickly turned off, and readers looking for this sort of thing wouldn’t give it a look either. And with a zero-level fan base to draw on for the property itself, this was a comic that was destined to fail. And it did so. Spectacularly.

The sales index number is a ratio of the title’s current month sales to the average sales figure of the line to which is belongs for that month. So a sales index number of 1.0 means that a title sold very close to the sales average for that line.

—– The Fine Print (Disclaimers, et cetera)
The numbers above are estimates for comic-book sales in the North American direct market, as calculated by ICv2.com according to the chart and index information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors.

ICv2.com‘s estimates are somewhat lower than the actual numbers, but they are consistent from month to month, so the trends they show are fairly accurate. Since it’s a “month-to-month” column, the comments, unless otherwise noted, are on the most recent month.

Bear in mind that the figures measure sales of physical comics to retailers, not customers. Also, these numbers do not include sales to bookstores, newsstands, other mass-market retail chains or the United Kingdom. Re-orders are included, so long as they either reached stores in a book’s initial calendar month of release or were strong enough to make the chart again in a subsequent month. Keep in mind that sales for some titles may include incentives to acquire variants and not every unit sold is necessarily even intended to be sold to a customer.

If additional copies of an issue did appear on the chart after a book’s initial calendar month of release, you can see the total number of copies sold in brackets behind those issues (e.g. “[36,599]“). Should more than one issue have shipped in a month which is relevant for one of the long-term comparisons, the average between them will be used.

Titles which are returnable have their numbers artificially adjusted down by Diamond. To make up for that this column increases the reported numbers for those titles by 10%. Which is likely also wrong, but it’s a different and likely less wrong kind of wrong, and experience has shown that this leads to sales figures which are more consistent.

Titles released under the All-Ages line and magazines, such as Mad, mostly sell through channels other than the direct market, so direct-market sales don’t tell us much about their performance. For most Vertigo titles, collection sales tend to be a significant factor, so the numbers for those books should be taken with a grain of salt as well. To learn (a little) more about Vertigo’s collection sales, go right here.

Please keep in mind that raw sales numbers do not tell us about how profitable a book is for a publisher or for the creators.
Above all, do not allow sales numbers to dictate your purchasing and enjoyment of a particular comic. If you enjoy reading a comic series then go right on buying and reading that comic, no matter what the sales figures say.

** Two asterisks after a given month in the average charts mean that one or more periodical release did not make the Top 300 chart in that month. In those cases, it’s assumed that said releases sold as many units as the No. 300 comic on the chart for that month for the purposes of the chart, although its actual sales are likely to be less than that.
—– About the New Guy
I’m Dave Carter. In my day job I’m a librarian at the University of Michigan where I serve as the Video Game Archivist and also select comics and graphic novels for the library’s collection and organize comics-related events for the library. I occasionally blog about comics at Yet Another Comics Blog, where I compile a weekly (on Fridays) snapshot of comics and graphic novels sales on Amazon. I tweet about comics at @davereadscomics.

How did I end up with this gig? Heidi McDonald asked me, apparently at the recommendation of the former author of this column, Marc-Oliver Frisch. Mad props to Marc-Oliver for keeping this up for the past many years! (And thanks to interim columnist Frans van der Strack for doing the December column while I got my stuff together to start up in 2014.)

As this is my inaugural column, I’m interested in your feedback. Do you find the changes I’ve made to be useful? Do you agree or disagree with my commentary? Is there anything new or different that you’d like to see in future columns? Use the comments below and let me (and the world) know. (But be gentle—this is my first time!)

It’s highly likely that in the course of my transcription from the old columns into my new internal system that I mis-typed something or left something out. If you have any corrections, kindly note them in the comments below and I’ll investigate and fix things for future columns if necessary.

It should go without saying but I’ll state it anyway: All of the opinions expressed in this column are my own and do not reflect those of my employers, Heidi McDonald or anyone at The Beat, the World Curling Federation, or my neighbors’ dog Miles.